On September 29, 2009, the Rockefeller Foundation presented its Jane Jacobs Medal to Damaris Reyes, Executive Director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES). Reyes was awarded the 2009 Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism for her extraordinary work in the Lower East Side community and her leadership throughout New York on tenantsí rights, eviction protection, economic justice, and many other issues. Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh was on hand for the presentation of the medal at the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium at 41 Cooper Square.

The award was created in 2007 by the Rockefeller Foundation to honor Jane Jacobs, an urban design author and activist who died in 2006 at the age of 89. Since 2007, the award has been administered by the Municipal Art Society of New York. Kavanagh and all of us on the 74th Assembly District staff would like to extend our warmest congratulations to everyone at GOLES and to Damaris Reyes for her dedication and activism, and for the well-deserved recognition extended by the Rockefeller Foundation in making this prestigious award.